


Security Blanket

by noblealice



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Community: schmoop_bingo, Cuddling and Snuggling, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-24
Updated: 2011-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-15 01:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblealice/pseuds/noblealice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Post S1 finale) She told herself that the tight feelings in her chest were simply platonic joy at seeing her friend and partner so happy after all he’d been through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Security Blanket

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'spooning' box on my schmoop_bingo card

"I think I’m going to go into a sugar coma." She groaned from her position on the window seat.

"Well, you _have_ consumed a couple dozen of those."

"Oh, what do you know? The only sugar you like is the syrup on your pancakes and even then you barely put on enough to cover them, let alone soak them!"

He started picking up the discarded wrappers and plastic containers, futilely trying to stuff them all in the trash in her room. "Is your sweet tooth sufficiently indulged?"

"Enough to talk about the worst conspiracy I’ve ever been a part of? I doubt it."

"Technically this is the only conspiracy you’ve been a part of."

She wanted to argue with that, (she’d handled a few dicey cases while with the FBI) but for some reason she didn’t think any of them would hold up against a creepy small town council that had somehow managed to involve the federal government while staying secret for two hundred years.

Even with the Haven-esque aspect of memory modification, it felt more like a movie plot than something that had actually happened to her (and to poor, innocent Natalie Hubert).

What hurt the most was how people she had trusted had been able to lie to her every day. It was going to be a long time before she could look either Vince or Dave in the eye again.

"But it’s over now." Nathan said, clearing his throat. "Mostly."

She sighed, not wanting to ignore the situation, but certainly not ready to confront it either.

"So you’re saying it’s back to the grind?"

"I’m saying you’ve got icing on your nose." He leaned over to wipe it off with his finger, popping the digit in his mouth afterwards.

She felt her stomach twist at the sight of his smile, finding herself compelled to smile back. Ever since he had told her the he could feel her, he seemed unable to keep his hands to himself. He used every opportunity possible to touch her and she didn’t have it in her to ask him to stop, not when it made his face light up like this.

She told herself that the tight feelings in her chest were simply platonic joy at seeing her friend and partner so happy after all he’d been through.

 

\---

 

Nathan was in the middle of a traffic report when glossy 8x10 photos of chubby babies in onesies were unceremoniously dropped onto his desk. "What’s this?"

"You don’t see the resemblance, _Dad_?"

He quirked an eyebrow at his partner, she was acting stranger than normal this morning.

"Look, he’s got your broody eyes and stoic expression."

"He has gas."

She smiled at his unimpressed expression and it was the first real one he’d seen in weeks. "Okay, you caught me. It’s from a Google image search but I figured we needed something if we were going to pose as the next victims."

He set down his coffee mug, not liking how this was sounding. "Next victims? Mind telling me who we are pretending to be and why?"

"It was all your idea! You wanted me to get back to work, so I stayed up half the night researching cases in the neighbouring towns. It’ll be something to give us a break from the Troubles."

A thick manila file was dropped onto his desk to join the photos. "I stumbled across this case and there’s a pattern."

He frowned, thumbing through the pages. "Uh, the department’s not exactly capable of handling a kidnapping case."

"That’s why we’re going undercover! I think we can lure the con man out and catch him."

"This isn’t really what I---"

She perched herself on the side of his desk, her hair falling over her shoulder like a wave. "C’mon don’t you want to find little copyright-free Cole?"

He drew his brows together with a grimace, wishing that he could pinch himself to check if this was a dream.

"Nathan, we’ve posed as a couple before, it shouldn’t be much different."

"It’s completely different! Last time, we were pretending to be parents of a kid who was driving us off a cliff, _in his dream_." He wished he knew of a polite way to tell someone that they were insane. Although, knowing Audrey, she’d probably take it as a compliment.

"Okay, point taken." She hopped off his desk and sat down in her own chair. "But I don’t understand, I thought you’d be all over having a son. Teaching the little tyke how to spit and tie knots during long fishing trips on the weekends. All that typical family stuff I keep hearing about."

He rolled his eyes, but then took to examining the picture. The anonymous baby was cute, in a chubby way. "I always liked the thought of a little girl who would adore me and think I was always right."

Audrey snorted. "She’d be the only one."

Unfortunately, Audrey noticed that Nathan had gotten her off topic. She lifted the photo from his fingers, once again placing it on top of the pile.

"Let’s concentrate on one imaginary kid at a time, okay? We’ll fake a bunch of photos of us on picnics and around campfires in case anyone gets nosy."

"Picnics? You do know that no family is actually as wonderful as the ones on TV, at least, not from my experience anyways."

He was about to tell Audrey a favourite story of when the Chief had tried to teach him how to throw and it landed him in the hospital, when he noticed the emotion in her eyes. He gently placed his hand on top of hers.

"I know that no family is perfect. It’s just..." She broke off, slipping her hand out from under his.

She turned to stare out the window and he wished he knew what to say. Sometimes being quiet wasn’t always a blessing. He knew he couldn’t possibly know how she felt, but he did know what it was like to be alone. He scraped his chair against the floor as he got up, earning a glance from her.

Upon seeing his look, she tried to switch tactics, obviously aware of his intention for a heart-to-heart. Shooting him a hundred-watt smile she asked, "Look, what if you got to name him?"

Understanding that perhaps this was not the best time, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, bracing himself for a fight. "That’s not going to convince me."

 

\--

 

Two hours later, when they were checking into the hotel under their assumed names, Audrey glanced up to see Nathan frowning.

They were linked arm in arm and she had to shake him a bit to get his attention. "Alright, what’s got your forehead all crinkled?"

"I just don’t know what is more surprising, that the spook-master draws the line at psychics or that you somehow dragged me into this."

She shrugged. "Well, he’s a fake who finds desperate people and exploits them. I have a problem with that."

She noticed how he tried to inconspicuously glance down, probably wondering what memory was going through her mind to make her so tense. She knew that it was likely that he could just barely feel an increased pressure on his arm but this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about.

She pasted her fake smile on again. "And as for the second part, you’re a big softie. I had you hooked the second I showed you that baby photo, admit it."

Audrey could feel him sigh against her and wondered when she would finally feel comfortable opening up her past to him. She knew that she _wanted_ to eventually share things with him, it would just take a bit more time.

But if Nathan was going to act wounded every time she kept a part of herself hidden, this was going to be a long week.

 

\--

 

Audrey threw her small duffle bag onto the desk chair by the window, looking out through the blinds as if their suspect would be waiting, looking shady underneath a street light.

"I booked us a giant room, so no need for chivalry or modesty. It’s a giant bed so we should both be able to sleep comfortably without any fuss."

Nathan had noticed that there was only one bed as soon as he set foot inside and was still trying to swallow.

Sensing his reluctance, Audrey continued, "of course, if that offends your delicate sensibilities, there is always the couch."

It looked more like a tiny loveseat to him and he knew that even folded in half he’d never fit on it. Sharing the bed it was.

The room looked pretty snazzy, there were at least half a dozen extra pillows on the bed and the flat screen TV was bigger than the one down at Duke’s. He didn’t even want to look at the mini bar prices. "This all on the Department’s dime?"

"Hey, we need to sell the cover story of two wealthy parents ready to shell out obscene amounts of cash."

That was easy for Audrey to say, as she had Daryl from accounting wrapped around her finger, even if she never remembered his name. As acting Chief until the next Town Council, Nathan would bear the brunt of his wrath.

He sighed again. "Alright, let’s just get some shut eye. We got an early start tomorrow."

Despite his intention, Nathan got hardly any sleep the first night. He wasn’t used to sleeping with so many clothes on, but he didn’t think it was appropriate to jump into bed with his partner half-naked. Audrey didn’t seem to notice the heat; in fact, she was rolled up in all the blankets that Nathan had thrown off. He shifted to get up and open the window to relieve the room’s stuffiness when he felt her skin beneath his foot.

He jerked his foot back and immediately stiffened, afraid of waking Audrey. His eyes were wide open and now he knew for sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon.

In the few times he had slept with a woman, he could roll over without feeling someone else there. Tonight, his body felt like it had just been shocked from the tiny brushes with Audrey’s skin, which was smooth and warm and enticingly close.

Every time he finally forced himself to sleep, he would bolt awake minutes later when their limbs accidentally made contact and the sensation sent alarm bells to his brain. He’d be confused as to where he was until he looked over at Audrey’s sleeping form, curled up on the other side of the bed, and the reality of the situation would crash down on him.

It always took him ages to fall back asleep as he lectured himself on not reaching out to touch her purposefully. He didn’t think that was very friendly and the last thing he wanted to do was overstep the boundaries.

 

\--

 

Audrey was evaluating her partner out of the corner of her vision and not liking what she saw. His eyes seemed red-rimmed and he couldn’t stop yawning during their last interview. It was barely noon but he looked dead on his feet. She pulled him aside after clearing the last witness.

"You don’t look so good. Having trouble sleeping?"

He reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah. You know how it is, nothing ever really compares to your own bed at home I guess."

"I wouldn’t know."

She paused, suddenly aware that she had revealed too much in one quiet sentence. They may have gotten further with trusting each other, but Audrey still tried to stubbornly hide any vulnerability from him. "I mean, just because I travelled so much for work. Hotels are second nature to me."

She tried to play it off with a laugh and thankfully decided not to press the issue, simply smiling at her offering of yet another steaming black coffee.

The day hadn’t gone as Audrey hoped, their main suspect eluded their trap and no-one had shown up during their stakeout.

She lightly punched Nathan’s arm. "Tonight you better get some rest, I need my partner is perfect shape tomorrow."

Taking in how he absent-mindedly rubbed the bicep she had just smacked and his zoned-out appearance, she was hoping for a break in the case soon. Nathan didn’t look like he could handle much more.

 

\--

 

The second night was a repeat of the first, with Nathan pushed to the very edge of the luxurious hotel bed by his morals and subconsciously sliding closer to Audrey’s warmth whenever he fell asleep. Hours before the sun came up, he gave up altogether and took to silently pacing the room. He was showered and downing coffee before dawn just so as not to disturb her.

It left him sluggish all day, but it did give him the unique opportunity of watching Audrey wake up. He found that she stretched like a cat every morning after violently smacking her alarm with her eyes closed. She then shuffled off to the bathroom for a steaming shower. She forgot to bring her duffle bag into the bathroom with her, so she had to sprint out in a towel to retrieve it.

She ran on her toes with her hair dripping onto her golden shoulders, creating a glistening shimmer on her skin. Never had a woman looked more enticing than Audrey in that moment.

 

\--

 

Waking up enclosed on all sides by something strong enough to pin her down was a shock for Audrey. She froze and quickly looked for clues as to her whereabouts. She had suspected that their target had the upper hand on them these past few days, but she never expected anything like this. She only hoped Nathan was alright.

She noticed that she was still in the hotel room so she tried to grab her phone from the nightstand to call for help. Her movement caused her body to shift and she felt a small huff of air right behind her ear. Now she was more confused than ever. She told herself not to panic when she craned her neck to see the source.

At least she didn’t have to worry about Nathan anymore, as what she had took to be restraints were actually his arms hugging her. His whole body was pressed up close against her back. She tried to take a few deep breaths to calm herself except this caused her to accidentally inhale his scent.

There were twenty minutes until her alarm was set to go off but Audrey felt trapped. She had never been big on cuddling, mostly because she liked her men like she liked her coffee - hot and to go. No one had ever stayed around long enough to spend the night in bed with her so she still had no idea what it was like to be part of a couple. Role playing with Nathan the last few days had felt alien, like she was an imposter that was going to be exposed any second.

Of course, as she lay silently in Nathan’s embrace, her most immediate concern was escaping her partner’s heavy arm and not her past mistakes in relationships. She tested rolling away from him, but apparently Nathan had not only gravitated toward her during the night but had also wrapped himself tightly around her. She hadn’t felt so confined since she’d been cocooned by her own afghan. She was so intricately twined with him that she had to slowly wriggle out and roll to the floor to escape. She tried not to freak out – the man had been denied physical contact for a decade and his subconscious must have instinctually searched out her warmth in the night.

While she could rationalize the situation, this was not exactly the response she had been hoping for when she’d crushed up allergy medication in his drink last night to help him sleep.

Wrapping the tangled sheets around her, she rushed to the bathroom. She put a hand to her face, startled to find that her cheeks were flushed. It was probably just from Nathan’s body heat but that annoying tight sensation in her stomach lingered all throughout her long shower as she couldn’t shake the memory of his body pressed tight against her.

 

\--

 

Apparently sleep did wonders for Nathan’s investigative abilities because they were now at the hotel bar, celebrating a successful arrest.

However, eight hours of solid rest did nothing for his sense of humour because he’d been teasing Audrey about her performance for the last half hour without stop and she wasn’t finding any of it very funny.

"You are the worst fake-crier I’ve ever met!" He slammed his near-empty glass down, rattling the ice inside.

"I wasn’t that bad! Besides, I think I deserve some credit."

"He only started to believe us after I stepped in with that story about the security blanket."

Nathan had noticed Audrey’s struggle across the room and had quickly made his way to her, turning her into his body so she faced his chest. Her crying had seemed much more real without her smile creeping in. He had hugged her tight while yelling at the hotel manager, hoping to distract him from the lack of tears on her face.

Audrey, for her part, had just clutched at his shirt, shoulders bouncing with fake sobs. If he closed his eyes, he could still feel her phantom warmth in his arms. It had been distracting, especially with her breath huffing against his neck. He’d had a hard time concentrating on his story when the smell of her hair filled his nose.

"Oh, you think you’re so good at assuming someone else’s identity? Let me guess, you played the lead in the school play and that’s where your ego got its start."

"I’ll have you know I made a very convincing lobster."

"And the truth finally comes out! Is that what caused the famous hatred of all things seafood?"

He leaned in, the liquid left in his glass sloshing dangerously close to the edge. "You’ll never know."

"Easy, Sheriff. We still have to drive home tomorrow."

The implications of that crashed down around him like a bucket of cold water. They’d be packing up in the morning, leaving their cover relationship behind with the hotel bill.

He wouldn’t be able to laconically lace his arm with Audrey’s anymore – not without the whole town finding out. He wouldn’t be able to brush crumbs off her mouth or hold her hand as they walked down the street.

It felt like the world’s dirtiest trick; he was hooked on her touch and now his supply was being taken away. Vaguely, he wondered if there was such a thing as Audrey-withdrawal.

Sure, he’d get a better night’s rest when he didn’t have to worry about accosting her during the night, but the contact during the day had more than made up for any lost sleep.

"I’m appointing you the designated driver for tomorrow. I’m going to take a well deserved nap for solving this case single-handedly."

"Single-handedly?" Audrey’s eyes went wide as she moved to hit him in the head. But she’d matched him drink for drink and almost tipped over with the effort. Soon she was giggling at how close she had come to falling off her bar stool. Watching her smile, he could only hope that this week was just a preview of what was to come.


End file.
